Yesterday was an absolutely legendary sports day. You had the final game of the World Series. The MLS Championship where Garreth Bale, fresh out of Europe, replaces Vela on the field for LAFC and scores the tying goal in the final minute of extra time. (LAFC went on to win in PKs. What a crazy finish that was.) You had No. 1 Tennessee v. No. 3 Georgia. You had Bran Kelly’s new team, sixth ranked LSU, beating No. 2 Alabama in overtime. And you had unranked Notre Dame going up against a 4th ranked Clemson team at home. Wow.
So when my brothers found out I was on a juice cleanse this weekend, they took it as an opportunity to give me a tremendous amount of shit. They kept offering me shots and beers. “Hey Kevy, if Notre Dame wins, you have to take a shot. Come on, man, take a shot!” Ryan got shrimp pizza from Pizza Port. They got a bowl from Chipotle just the way I like it and put it in front of me. “Here, man, I’m full. Finish my burrito,” sticking it in my face.
And let me tell you something. I didn’t give two shits about the alcohol but holy crap I wanted the food. So bad! But I sat there sipping my juice, starving, enjoying the game. And holy crap, what a game it was. Notre Dame absolutely curb stomped Clemson, and the did it with a quarterback that can’t throw the ball five yards down the field (ND’s QB is the worst I have ever seen). That means ND had to run the ball and they bullied them the whole game. It was glorious. (Come on, man! Now you have to take a shot!) But still, I drank my juice.
The thing is, I feel better than I have in years. I don’t want to go into specifics because it almost seems too good to be true and I don’t want to jinx myself. Especially since, yesterday when I was in Target buying stuff for my apartment, I suddenly felt pain shooting in my side. “It’s back,” I thought. “This cleanse solved nothing.” Then I got back to my apartment and the pain moved and I thought I was going to throw up and then I went to the bathroom and I felt even better than I’d felt before.
Not only that, you know, this experience has really made me think about how I’ve treated my body. And watching them eat tacos then pizza then burritos, all I could think about was how they were packing all that into their gut. Holy crap, I don’t want to live like that anymore.